_To the Editor of the Scientific American:_
Your issues of October 23 and 30 contain some remarkable articles under
the heading of "Ice at High Temperatures."
Prof. Carnelley says; "In order to convert a solid into a liquid, the
_pressure_ must be above a certain point, otherwise no amount of heat
will melt the substance," as it passes at once from the sold state into
the state of gas, subliming away without previous melting. And, "having
come to this conclusion, it was easily foreseen that it would be
possible to have solid ice at temperatures far above the ordinary
melting point."
The first conclusion of the professor is correct, but not new. The
second conclusion is new, but very doubtful as to its correctness, and
certainly does not follow as a sequence from his premise.
If we try to heat ice in a vacuum, we cannot apply any heat to the ice
direct, but only to the vessel containing the ice. The vessel may be
much heated; but whether it will convey heat to the ice quick enough to
heat it over 32°, and whether at all it can be heated over 32°, this is
a question of a different nature. Before crediting such a conclusion we
must know more of the details of the experiments which the professor
made in order to verify its correctness. When saying that "on one
occasion a small quantity of water was frozen in a glass vessel which
was so hot that it could not be touched by the hand without burning it,"
he evidently assumes that if the vessel is hot, the ice inside must be
equally so; but this assumption is erroneous. Faraday has made water to
freeze in a red hot platina pot; the ice thus formed was not red hot
like the platina, but was below the freezing point. Just so with
Professor Carnelley's glass vessel: the vessel was hot, but the ice
inside no doubt was "ice cold." If the professor would surround a
thermometer bulb with ice and then make the mercury rise above the
freezing point, we would believe in "hot ice;" not before. Until he
does, we prefer to believe that the heat conveyed through the vessel to
the ice is all absorbed in vaporizing the ice, and not in raising its
temperature above 32°.
Professor Carnelley's further statement, apparently proving his theory,
that the ice at once liquefies as soon as pressure is admitted (say by
admitting air), is readily accounted for by the phenomena connected with
the "Leydenfrost Drop." Water in a red hot vessel will vaporize off much
slower than in a vessel heated a little above the boiling point, from
the reason that in the red hot vessel no _real contact_ takes place
between the vessel and the water. At the place where the two ought to
touch, steam is formed quicker than it can escape, which steam prevents
the contact between vessel and water; therefore, as no real contact
takes place, the heat from the vessel can pass into the water but
slowly, viz., in the proportion as it works itself through the layer of
steam, which in itself is a bad conductor. Just so in Prof. Carnelley's
experiment: The heated glass vessel will convey heat to the ice only at
those points where it touches the ice; at those points at once a
formation of vapor takes place, which prevents an intimate contact
between the glass and the ice, so that they do not really touch each
other, consequently the heat can pass into the ice but slowly, having to
work its way through the thin layer of rarefied vapor between the two.
As soon as pressure is admitted by admitting atmospheric air, vapors can
no longer form; an intimate contact will take place between the glass
and the ice, and consequently the heat be conveyed over quick enough to
make the ice melt away rapidly.
The professor's experiments, therefore, so far as published, do not
prove anything to justify his strange conclusion. It is perfectly true
that in a vacuum of less than 4.6 mm. mercury pressure, no amount of
heat will melt ice, all heat that can be conveyed to the ice being
absorbed by vaporization. But before crediting the professor's further
conclusion, that ice can be heated much above the freezing point, he
must actually produce "hot ice," not only a hot vessel containing ice.
N. J.
Brooklyn, N. Y., October 25, 1880.
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